Factcheck: Luton’s efficient homes

Luton often appears in lists compiled by PR companies hoping for a bit of news attention. Their methodology can often be highly suspect, giving entirely false representations of the town.

I recently came across two rather different perspectives on the efficiency of Luton’s homes. This survey had Luton at number five, as one of the best places in the country for efficient homes, ahead of dozens of supposedly greener and wealthier towns.

But then this county-wide report names multiple areas of Luton where home efficiency is low, and where residents are paying over the odds for their energy. According to this report, 65% of Luton’s homes were rated D to G.

So which is right?

The facts are easy to find if you know where to look. There’s an open database of all Energy Performance Certificates in England and Wales, so you can see for yourself how Luton is doing.

Of the 72,895 certificates publicly available, around 36% score C or above. That’s the government target, so anything below a C needs work – and that’s the majority of Luton’s homes.

To get to net zero, we’ll have to do better than that, and improve all of Luton’s housing towards an A or B rating. This will be a long-term project. Just 44 homes in Luton currently score an A for energy efficiency.

In terms of where Luton sits nationally, this ranking from Compare the Market has Luton at 242 out of 305, and its figures look about right.

Better homes are going to be an important part of Luton’s story over the coming decades – and rightly so. We have everything to gain from making these improvements. A highly efficient home has low bills, and is comfortable all year round – as well as being better for the environment.

Don’t all of Luton’s residents deserve an A-rated home?

(Header photo by Monika/Flickr)

What could you forage in your local park?

How many edible plants could you find on a stroll through your local park? Residents of High Town got to find out recently, on a walk in People’s Park with Jane Simmons, aka The Hitchin Forager.

Starting at the park’s green flag, it took a matter of yards to find the first edibles tucked away in the grass. Plantain, with its distinctive veined and spear-like leaves, was plentiful.

Further up the hill into the woodland, we were introduced to the possibilities of lime flowers, wild cherries, elderflower, and hawthorn berries. Beneath the trees we found the bright leaves of garlic mustard, wild garlic, and woodland strawberries. The children were delighted to find that stickyweed is entirely edible and tastes (sort of) like peas, as well as being a useful weed for sticking surreptitiously to adults’ backs.

There’s more, including the wonderfully named stinking bob, but I won’t aim for an exhaustive list. The takeaway is that even an urban woodland can be full of wild foods. And while foraging is never going to replace a substantial number of calories and reduce our carbon footprints, it does give us a greater appreciation of the local landscape. When we understand more about the land we occupy, we care more about it. We build a greater connection to the earth, and perhaps we’ll be more inclined to act to protect it.

The foraging walk was organised by Friends of People’s Park and Edible High Town, who are also responsible for the community orchard that graces People’s Park.

Cheaper solar with Solar Together Bedfordshire

At a time when electricity costs are rising, having your own solar panels is looking more appealing with every bill through the letterbox. Solar can be expensive though, and so here’s some good news for those who have been pondering the pros and cons: Registrations are now open for the group-buying scheme Solar Together, running across all the councils in Bedfordshire. The aim is to reduce the costs of solar by working together.

If you’re interested in getting solar panels or domestic battery storage, you’ll need to register here, giving details of your roof size and orientation. There’s no obligation at this stage. Once all the registrations are in, selected installers will bid for the work – and by grouping orders together, everybody gets solar at a more competitive rate.

The winning contractor will then survey your home, give you a recommendation and a quote, which you can then accept or decline. If you’ve been considering getting solar, there’s nothing to lose from joining the scheme – but be quick, because registrations close on June 14th.

Here’s the link again: solartogether.co.uk/luton

Could you be Luton’s climate champion?

As part of its Easy Being Green campaign, Luton Council is hosting a competition to find the town’s climate change champion.

The council wants to hear examples of people who are reducing their carbon footprints, and who would be willing to share their story. Using images and video, you’d be sharing your experienced of how you are cutting waste, saving energy, choosing sustainable transport options, and any other steps towards a greener lifestyle. Who might you inspire by sharing your story?

Is there a prize, you may ask. And yes there is. A family membership to ZSL – that’s Whipsnade and London Zoo – is on offer. It’s an annual pass that’s worth £325, or if the zoo isn’t your thing you can request an equivalent value in vouchers.

“Each action we take on climate change makes a difference” says Councillor Tom Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change. “Our Climate Change Champions will highlight how small lifestyle changes are impactful, attainable and often cost free – if anything our residents could actually save money!”

“I’m very excited to hear what our community is doing to tackle this issue in their everyday lives – the more original the idea, the better! Whilst we are taking steps to lead the way on climate change locally, from reducing emissions in council buildings to using gas-to-liquid fuel in our vehicle fleet, we know the people of Luton are also key to change. Those with experiences, ideas and ‘green’ lifestyles are our allies and we need to hear their voices.” 

How do you enter? Email the council here: LutonLife@luton.gov.uk

You have until the 27th of May to enter, with the winner announced on June 5th. More details here.

Green controlled growth at Luton airport?

Luton Rising are proposing a new approach to sustainability concerns around expanding the airport. Called Green Controlled Growth, the aim is to set fixed limits for a variety of environmental harms. Any expansion of the airport has to fit within those boundaries, or it can’t happen. Here’s the video introducting the idea:

As Luton Rising CEO Graham Olver writes, Green Controlled Growth “means we cannot grow unless we remain inside set environmental limits on carbon emissions, aircraft noise, surface access modes, and air quality. These constraints will be legally binding, overseen, and monitored by an independent body.”

This is a pioneering idea, and if done well, it would be an interesting innovation to come out of Luton Airport. As an airport wholly owned by the local council, it’s appropriate that Luton should be pioneering socially conscious approaches to aviation.

However, the bottom line with climate change is always the same: greenhouse gas emissions. Every source of climate emissions needs to be falling. No sector gets a free pass to increase emissions. And here’s where Green Controlled Growth can’t deliver on the most important thing. It only covers emissions from ground operations. Once planes reach cruising altitude, it’s not considered part of Luton Airport’s emissions, even if the fuel was pumped on board in Luton.

As Luton Rising acknowledge themselves, “by far the largest contributor to the airport’s overall climate impact is the carbon emitted by aircraft engines.” And that is not covered by the Green Controlled Growth strategy.

To put it another way, Green Controlled Growth can be seen as a way of managing local impacts, but not global ones. Expanding the airport is still going to lead to a massive increase in greenhouse gas emissions and climate impact.

Look out for our Little Green Libraries

Have you seen one of our Little Green Libraries yet? We’re pulling together collections of inspiring and informative books on environmental themes, and placing them in public places. It’s part of our work on climate literacy, and making sure that anyone in Luton can find the information they need to make a difference.

They run on trust, so there’s no membership, check-out or late fees. Unlike normal libraries, you’re welcome to share books of your own too – just leave them in the box for others to benefit from them.

We’re currently piloting the idea, so there are three to discover at the moment:

We’ll be keeping an eye on how they’re used. If they are popular, we’ll do some more. With choices tailored to location, we’d love to put them in cafes, churches, schools, and perhaps in actual libraries.

If you’d like one, get in touch. We’ll need to secure some funding or sponsorship to put more out there, but we’d like to. And if you can help with sponsorship, let us know. (The initial pilot has been sponsored by Earthbound Books)

A quiet revolution in street lighting

With bills rising dramatically, there’s been a lot of interest in ways to save energy recently. Replacing old light bulbs with LEDs is a common piece of advice. But what if you could do that with a whole town? That would be quite a saving.

Luton has in fact just done that. Over the last few years over 18,500 street lights have been switched over to LEDs, with the transformation very nearly complete. Perhaps you’ve noticed them where you are.

There are multiple benefits to LED (Light Emitting Diode) street lights. For a start, they consume a fraction of the energy. As more and more streetlights have been switched over, the council is now saving a million pounds a year on its electricity bills.

There’s obviously a saving in carbon emissions too. Emissions from lighting have been cut by 80% since the beginning of the transition.

An added benefit is that LED bulbs are very reliable and require almost no maintenance. With nothing but a routine inspection from time to time, they should light the streets for 20+ years without needing a bulb change.

The LED streetlights are also better for wildlife, because they are designed to point downwards, reducing the light pollution that can affect birds and insects. Local star-gazers will hopefully notice a reduction in ‘sky glow’ as well.

There is still a little work to do to get the last few streetlights replaced, with some further savings expected from replacing the control mechanisms. Overall though, the patient work of switching over Luton’s streetlights has delivered safer streets, lower emissions and cheaper electricity bills for the town.

The wild future of Bradgers Hill

Conservation volunteer Nivan Hammond on why Bradgers Hill Wilder Futures is important for the site and the community.

Bradger’s hill is a distinctive area, both in terms of its place in the memories of local people as well as its status as a classic area of chalk grassland. When I was younger, it was regular for groups or schools to use the hill and the John Dony Field Centre for education purposes. Young people would get to know about and care for this gem in their community.

The John Dony experience has long since halted, although the road signs to its former location remain. As such, it is at risk of becoming a hill that people take for granted, unaware of the history or the ecosystems found there. I believe this can be changed, with environmental issues being brought to the front page of newspapers or TV screens, now is the time. It’s so important that those people in the community know about the unique area of natural beauty and the species that live within it.

The Wilder Futures project is an important beginning. Drawing people’s attention to this site, getting them to interact and learn from those who are passionate about it will inspire people of all ages to get involved and begin to care more for the green spaces around them. Led by a team who are knowledgeable in their field and working with the Friends of Bradger’s Hill, I’m personally excited to see this site brought back to life.

This is not only good for the future of site, but also brings the community together through exploring, learning and shared experiences.

For more information please visit: Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants, Friends of Bradgers Hill, or look them up on Facebook. You can also contact Noreen Iqbal on Noreen.Iqbal@wildlifebcn.org

The climate and our future: an invitation

Did you know that Luton Borough Council has a Principal Climate Officer? Would you like to hear about what he does? Well, here’s the perfect opportunity!

In 2019 Luton Council followed the government in declaring a climate emergency.
They set an earlier target for reaching net zero carbon emissions – 2040.

Luton has a Climate Action Plan, which is in 2 parts:

  • Council activities, properties and transport, including the airport (flights and transport to the airport and actions on the airport site)
  • The borough more widely, including action by businesses, organisations and individuals.

Dylan Katuwawala will be updating us about progress on the Plan, how they have prioritised actions, what they have achieved, and their plans and targets, so we look forward to a lively discussion.

Before Christmas, Jeremy Williams came to talk to us about his book, Climate Change is Racist. We were fired up with how what we do in the privileged West affects communities around the world. We enjoyed some wonderful food brought by participants, especially the Sikh community.

We’d like updates on some initiatives we heard about at our last meeting. For example:

  • How Luton Council of Faiths are planting hundreds of trees across the town, to remember those who have died from Covid
  • How Bedford Radio has promoted climate and nature in recent broadcasts
  • The work that the Kashmir Development Foundation is doing to combat climate change through tree planting and other initiatives in Kashmir
  • How the Sikh community is providing hot meals locally to disadvantaged people (who suffer disproportionately from the effects of pollution)
  • The activities of Muslim Green Activists
  • What else we are all doing locally to cut carbon, and what more we could do

Interested? We would love to see you and any of your friends, colleagues or contacts.
This will be on the 7th of April at the Friends Meeting House, Crawley Green Rd, just uphill from Crescent Rd, at 7.30pm.

Please let us know if you are able to come, as we need to know numbers. If you’d like to bring vegan or vegetarian snacks for the interval, we would be delighted, but please don’t feel you have to. If coming by car, please try to come with someone else. If you need a lift, we may be able to help.

Covid restrictions have been relaxed, but many think it wise still to wear masks, and we ask that you consider that and social distancing at the meeting to reduce the chance of spreading the virus to vulnerable or older people.

Best wishes
David Oakley-Hill and Julie Furnivall
Luton Friends of the Earth
greenactivities@outlook.com

PS Please respond to the consultation on Luton airport expansion – deadline 4 April.
Advice at LADACAN and Stop LAE.

Protests at airport expansion plans

While the consultation on Luton airport’s expansion plans is ongoing, a number of groups have made their opposition clear. High profile opponents include Bim Afolami, Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden, who has launched a petition against the expansion. There is no mention of climate change in Afolami’s petition, which objects to the “detrimental impact on local transport networks and increase in air and noise pollution in Hitchin & Harpenden.”

Climate campaigners Greenwash.earth picked up on sustainability claims and named Luton Rising the ‘Greenwasher of the Month’ for February, saying that “flying can never be sustainable.”

More locally, the Luton branch of Extinction Rebellion has branded the plans “ludicrous” and is protesting against the expansion. “This goes against the council declaring a climate emergency and puts the people of Luton and the planet at risk from climate change.” The group have picketted consultation events, including a protestor greeting visitors to the Harpenden event dressed as the grim reaper.

Having demonstrated at events around the area, Extinction Rebellion Luton is inviting those opposed to airport expansion to join them at the consultation at Wigmore Church on the 26th of March. The group plans a carnivalesque series of interventions including a samba band, live music, costumes and dancing. All are welcome.